Politics of Harry Potter

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The HP Alliance uses allegories in Harry Potter to promote their fight against injustices in the real world. The HP Alliance was honored with a fansite award by JK Rowling for their political activism on the Darfur conflict.

There are many published theories about politics in the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling, which range from criticism of racism to anti-government sentiments. According to Inside Higher Ed, the catalog of the Library of Congress records 21 volumes of criticism and interpretation on the Harry Potter novels. At least 17 doctoral dissertations and seven master’s theses had been devoted to the Harry Potter books.^[1] There are also several university courses centered on analysis of the Potter series, including an upper division Political Science course.^[2]

Time Magazine noted the political and social aspects of Harry Potter in their 2007 Person of the Year issue where Rowling placed third behind politicians Vladimir Putin and Al Gore.^[3] Harry Potter's potential social and political impact was called similar to the 19th century phenomenon of Harriet Beecher Stowe's popular, but critically maligned book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which fueled the abolitionist movement leading up to the American Civil War.^[4]

When asked about the politics and message in Harry Potter, Rowling explained, "I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. So you have the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is this great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they can pride themselves on perceived purity. So yeah that follows a parallel [to Nazism]. It wasn't really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it's taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love."^[5] She also said, "You should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth."^[6]

The Wall Street Journal compared Neville Chamberlain to Rowling's Cornelius Fudge saying both were eager to help their constituents look the other way to avoid war. "Throughout the '30s, Chamberlain, fearing that Churchill was out for his job, conducted a campaign against his fellow Tory. Chamberlain denied the existence of the German menace and ridiculed Churchill as a "warmonger." He used the London Times--the government's house organ--to attack Churchill and suppress dispatches from abroad about the Nazis that would have vindicated him." The author also said Dumbledore was analogous to Winston Churchill.^[7] Rowling confirmed Chamberlain was her inspiration in the Spanish newspaper magazine XLSemanal.^[8] Rowling also told the Dutch newspaper The Volkskrant that Voldemort was "a sort of Hitler," and that her decision to draw parallels with Nazism in the books was immediate.^[9]

[edit] Education vs Indoctrination

Entertainment Weekly noted that the post-9/11 generation's "ideas about war, about leadership, about the dangers of consolidation of power and of dictatorship, about the importance of dissent, and about heroism and sacrifice, have been shaped at least in part by Rowling." And that their concept of freedom of speech has been influenced by Rowling's weathering of her books routine challenges.^[10]

Bill O'Reilly joined in the political fray over Harry Potter character Albus Dumbledore’s outing by asking if it was part of the “gay agenda” of the indoctrination of children. He called J.K. Rowling a provocateur for telling fans about Dumbledore's sexuality after the books were written. His guest, Entertainment Weekly Senior Editor Tina Jordan, called his “indoctrination” claims “a shallow argument,” saying “indoctrination is a very strong word” because “we all know gay people, whether we know it or not.”^[11] O’Reilly continued the following day saying that the real problem is Rowling is teaching “tolerance” and “parity for homosexuals with heterosexuals.” His guest Dennis Miller said that tolerance was good and didn't think you could indoctrinate a child into being gay.^[12]

Zenit, a news agency dedicated to promoting the message of the Catholic Church, accused Rowling of betraying her readers by disclosing Dumbledore's sexuality, and said Rowling is the wealthiest woman in England thanks to the lack of political, social or moral propaganda in her books.^[13] The head of Human Life International, took a negative view of the books and "their literary offspring" said that Harry Potter indoctrinates young souls in the language and mechanics of the occult and said that her portrayal of Dumbledore socializes if not indoctrinates, young people into tolerance of gays.^[14] The Berkeley Beacon said that one parent's perception of indoctrination is another's education, in their article, No Politics in Harry Potter, which countered charges that Rowling promoted homosexuality in her books.^[15] Discussing the controversy, Rowling told the BBC that "Christian fundamentalists were never my base" and thought it ridiculous to question if a gay person could be a moral compass in the 21st century.^[16]

Discussing the values and morality of her characters Draco and Dudley, Rowling explained both were indoctrinated with their parent's beliefs. "The moment Draco got what he thought he wanted, to become a Death Eater, and given a mission by Lord Voldemort, as he did in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, reality finally hit him," Rowling said, because his dream was "so very different." She said that there was a real moral cowardice to Draco, but that he was not wholly bad.^[17]

[edit] Racism, ethnic cleansing, and Nazism

This chart for distinguishing Jews, Germans, "mixed blood: first degree" and "mixed blood: second degree", used in Nazi Germany is redolent of the "pure-blood", "half-blood" and "Mudblood"/"Muggle-born" divisions used in Harry Potter.

Analysts note the criticism of racism in J. K. Rowling's texts.^[18][19] The American communist newspaper People's Weekly World noted parallels between the historical records of Rowling's admitted heroine Jessica Mitford's fight against Nazism, which other members of Mitford's aristocratic family notoriously supported, and similar conflicts inside the Black family in Harry Potter.^[19]

When asked about the theme of racism and if it has changed how people think, Rowling said "I do not think I am pessimistic but I think I am realistic about how much you can change deeply entrenched prejudice, so my feeling would be that if someone were a committed racist, possibly Harry Potter is not going to have an effect."^[20]

When asked in a post-Deathly Hallows webchat about Hermione's future, Rowling said, "Hermione began her post-Hogwarts career at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures where she was instrumental in greatly improving life for house-elves and their ilk. She then moved to the Dept. of Magical Law Enforcement where she was a progressive voice who ensured the eradication of oppressive, pro-pureblood laws."^[21]

After the publication of Deathly Hallows, Rowling responded to queries about metaphors in the books for ethnic cleansing: "Well, it is a political metaphor. But...I didn't sit down and think, 'I want to recreate Nazi Germany', in the—in the wizarding world. Because—although there are—quite consciously overtones of Nazi Germany, there are also associations with other political situations. So I can't really single one out."^[22] Rowling also compared her character Voldemort to paranoid megalomaniacs like Hitler and Stalin.^[23]

In her 2007 book tour Rowling further discussed the parallels to Nazism, stating "It wasn't really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it's taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love." She prefaced the remark, saying "People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they can pride themselves on perceived purity."^[24]

Rowling stated on her website that the Harry Potter phrases 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'Muggle-born' compared to "some of the real charts the Nazis used to show what constituted 'Aryan' or 'Jewish' blood. I saw one in the Holocaust Museum in Washington when I had already devised the 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'Muggle-born' definitions, and was chilled to see that the Nazis used precisely the same warped logic as the Death Eaters. A single Jewish grandparent 'polluted' the blood, according to their propaganda."^[25]

Christopher Hitchens noted in The New York Times that the lightning bolt - the shape of the scar which Harry received as a result of Voldemort's curse, now considered to be emblematic of the series - is also the symbol of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, a prominent group of Nazi sympathizers during the 1930s and '40s.^[26]

J.K. Rowling mentions in an article that Mosley was married to Diana Mitford, sister of her heroine, Jessica Mitford. Jessica, whom Rowling named her daughter after, never forgave Diana's Nazi sympathies.^[27] Oswald and Diana married in 1936, in the Berlin home of Nazi chief Joseph Goebbels with Adolf Hitler as a guest. J.K Rowling also noted that Mitford's other sister Unity, to whom Jessica was closest in youth, became an arch-fascist and favourite of Hitler's.^[27]

In a New York event hosted by MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann, Rowling confirmed the intentional similarities between Voldemort and Hitler.^[28]

In an act commemorating the Holocaust, Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, whose mother is Jewish, donated his first pair of glasses to an art exhibition inspired by a famous WWII photo of a mangled mountain of spectacles of victims of ethnic cleansing. Dan's Potter co-star Jason Isaacs, who plays Lucius Malfoy, will participate in the commemorations on National Holocaust Memorial Day, when he leads a service at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall.^[29]

[edit] Evils of war

On the Harry Potter series, Rowling said on her US Book Tour in October 2007, "I very consciously wanted to show what is one of the great evils of war, which is that totally innocent people are slaughtered... Another great evil of war is that children lose their families."^[30]

[edit] Progressive values and diversity

Time magazine said in 2005, "Rowling adapts an inherently conservative genre for her own progressive purposes. Her Hogwarts is secular and sexual and multicultural and multiracial and even sort of multimedia, with all those talking ghosts."^[31] To mark the French publication of Deathly Hallows, France's leading left-wing paper Liberation devoted the front cover and two more pages to answering the question "Why Harry Potter is of the Left."^[32]

In 2007, responding to a question from a child about Dumbledore's love life, Rowling revealed, "I always saw Dumbledore as gay." Filling in a few more details, she said, "Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald.... Don't forget, falling in love can blind us. [He] was very drawn to this brilliant person. This was Dumbledore's tragedy."^[33]

Melissa Anelli, webmaster of the fan site The Leaky Cauldron, told The Associated Press, “Jo Rowling calling any Harry Potter character gay would make wonderful strides in tolerance toward homosexuality.... By dubbing someone so respected, so talented and so kind, as someone who just happens to be also homosexual, she’s reinforcing the idea that a person’s gayness is not something of which they should be ashamed.”^[34] Of the ensuing controversy, Rowling said, "I know that it was a positive thing that I said it, for at least one person, because one man 'came out' at Carnegie Hall."^[35] Entertainment Weekly's Mark Harris said "her choice to make a beloved professor-mentor gay in a world where gay teachers are still routinely slandered as malign influences was, I am certain, no accident." Harris also says that there is a drastic underrepresentation of gays in the population, and it is a failure of decency and nerve on the entertainment industry— "including the tremendous number of gay producers, writers, and executives who sacrifice their convictions so they don't look too strident or political."^[36]

According to Think Progress, a progressive news site, conservative blogs say Rowling's revelation about Dumbledore vindicates Jerry Falwell's attacks on homosexuality in children's media that were lambasted by the mass media.^[37] "What's stopping her from saying that [Harry's friend] Neville grows up to be a pedophile," said David Baggett, an associate philosophy professor at Falwell's Liberty University's School of Religion. Baggett, who coauthored the book Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts, says he was taken aback not only by Rowling's announcement, but by the fact that it came on the heels of her confirming many Potter fans' belief that the series had Christian themes.^[38]

Slate Magazine quotes an attendee of the book talk who said, "It was clear that JKR didn't plan to out Dumbledore. She just cares about being true to her readers."^[39] Mike Thomas of the Orlando Sentinal said that upon reflection, Dumbledore was gay from the beginning, and that this neatly explains the behavior of his character and his relationship with Grindelwald. Thomas notes the skill Rowling displays in writing a gay character without having to put a gay label on him.^[40]

According to Reuters, Rowling was surprised over the fuss and declined to say whether her "outing" of Dumbledore might alienate those who disapprove of homosexuality. "It has certainly never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men. He is my character. He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him," she said. Reaction has been mainly supportive on fans' Web sites, such as The Leaky Cauldron.^[41]

Actor David Thewlis (Remus Lupin) said that he was surprised about Dumbledore's sexuality, because while he was filming Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuarón had the idea that Lupin was gay,” and he described my character like a ‘gay junkie’.”^[42]

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's book reviewer Chauncey Mabe says that it was wrong for Rowling to disclose Dumbledore's sexual preference. Mabe was clear that this was not due to Dumbledore's being gay, but to his own objections to authors continuing to talk about their books after they are written. He called for Rowling to "please be quiet, please" in "public gatherings," which is contrary to the massive popularity of Rowling's book talks and her fans' thirst for more information about characters in the Harry Potter books. Mabe notes that 1,000 children attended the "reading" before they were given autographed books. Robin Berkowitz, Sun-Sentinel Entertainment Editor says of Rowlings comments, and other revelations she might make about her characters "We don't need to know any of them to appreciate the books fully.", "Don't ask, don't spell" a reference to the U.S. military's policy on homosexuality, Don't Ask, Don't Tell.^[43] These sentiments are mirrored by Jeffrey Weiss in his article, "Harry Potter and the author who wouldn't shut up", published in the Dallas Morning News.^[44]

The Washington Post's Michael Gerson says "tolerance is one of the main themes of the Harry Potter books. In a marvelous social comparison, lycanthropy is treated as a kind of chronic disease, with werewolves subject to discrimination as if they had AIDS."^[45]

[edit] Social activism

According to Philip Nel of Kansas State University, the Potter series can be seen as "political novels that critique racism and racial superiority. Rowling, who worked for Amnesty International, evokes her social activism through Hermione's passion for oppressed elves and the formation of SPEW, her Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.^[46] Dobby, the house elf, has been compared to the labour lawyer Dobby Walker who introduced Rowling's heroine, Jessica Mitford, to the Communist Party.^[47] Hermione is depicted as starting a campaign to emancipate the enslaved House elves, using the methods of real-world campaigns on social and political issues such as badges with slogans. She persists in this campaigning also when it is considered quixiotic even by her close friends and not much appreciated even by most of the House elves themselves. But in Deathly Hallows the campaign turns out to have had enormous unforeseen results, with House elves joining the struggle and making several indispensable contributions to Voldemort's final defeat and saving the main protagonists' lives. Rowling said in an early interview that the Hermoine and her political conscience about the rights of elves was fairly autobiographical. ^[48]

[edit] Subversive and anarchistic message

Gerson of the Washington Post also described the very subversive nature of the Harry Potter books in the answer they offer to death. Voldemort believes that death must be mastered and "eaten." In contrast, Harry accepts the necessity of his own death for the sake of love. Gerson also suggests that some will ask the book series about tolerance also be a book series about religion. He answers that many others "believe -- not in spite of their faith but because of it -- that half-bloods, werewolves and others should be treated with kindness and fairness. Above all, believers are called to love, even at the highest cost."^[49]

In a 1999 interview with Rowling, The Guardian Unlimited's Joanna Carey said, "JK Rowling is every bit as witty and subversive as you'd expect. Rowling described her admiration of Jessica Mitford since age 14, her time at Exeter University "not quite the chance to be the 'radical' I planned," and said the later books dealing with Harry's hormones, and deaths will be unlike other children's series like the Famous Five. Carey suggested a parallel between Harry Potter and Prince Harry which Rowling laughs off saying a friend said never let the press make you discuss the royal family.^[50]

James Morone, a political science professor at Brown University, wrote in the liberal American Prospect in 2001, "Magical headmaster Albus Dumbledore practically awards bonus points for breaking rules. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is unruly, even slightly anarchic. Harry's classmate Hermione 'had become a bit more relaxed about breaking the rules,' writes Rowling near the end of Philosopher's Stone, 'and she was much nicer for it.' There's more than a touch of anarchy when all the students sing to their own tune. In her books, the kids are the central agents of their own lives. They make choices. Weigh judgments. Wrestle with freedom."^[51]

[edit] Conservative objections to liberal and socialist values

The far-right U.S. John Birch Society has objected to Rowling's books and her public statements. In his article for the John Birch Society's magazine The New American, Constitution Party Communications Director Steve Bonta compared Harry Potter negatively to The Lord of the Rings, saying "The Potter books read in places like diatribes against the modern middle class, especially whenever Harry confronts his ludicrously dysfunctional and downright abusive adopted family, the Dursleys."^[52]

Isabelle Smadja of Le Monde wrote that Harry Potter is the first fictional hero of the anti-globalist, anti-free market, pro-Third World, "Seattle" generation. She wrote that "Examination of the text suggests that they are, in fact, a ferocious critique of consumer society and the world of free enterprise."^[53]

[edit] Conservative and sexist values

The critic Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer on his experience of judging Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 1999 Whitbread Awards. His overall view of the series was very negative—"the Potter saga was essentially patronising, very conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain."^[54] Fox News weighed in on the debate noting the "Potter series is very popular in France, perhaps indicating that not everyone there is a left-wing intellectual."^[55] Rod Liddle of The Times also concludes the Potter tale to be popular for its sexist and neo-con values.^[56] Salon.com critic Christine Schoefer has also criticised the books as sexist, claiming that the series presents a patriarchal world filled with stereotypes and adherence to "the conventional assumption that men do and should run the world."^[57]

When an interviewer suggested her books portrayed a conservative world, Rowling replied, "So I'm told repeatedly. The two groups of people who are constantly thanking me are Wiccans [followers of the modern Witchcraft religion] and boarding schools. And really, don't thank me. I'm not with either of them. New ageism leaves me completely cold, and [my daughter] would never go to boarding school. I went to a comprehensive."^[58]

Rowling says she gets frustrated with the "conservative world thing". She made Hogwarts a boarding school so that action could happen in the middle of the night and to create a sense of community among the characters. Harry also reflects the modern world, she argues, in that he is mixed race — his father being pure-blood, his mother being Muggle-born."^[58] She also says her feminist conscience is saved by Hermione, "who's the brightest character" and is a "very strong female character."^[59]

[edit] Class distinctions

O Magazine noted that Rowling admires Roddy Doyle and Jane Austen, saying "both of whom write about class distinctions," and asked if the reason Rowling wrote about class was a conscious decision. Rowling replied, "kids are acutely aware of money—before they're aware of class. A kid isn't really going to notice how another kid holds his knife and fork. But a kid will be acutely aware that he doesn't have pocket money. Or that he doesn't have as much pocket money. I think back to myself at 11. Kids can be mean, very mean. So it was there in Ron not having the proper length robes, you know? And not being able to buy stuff on the trolley. He's got to have sandwiches his mum made for him, even though he doesn't like the sandwiches. Having enough money to fit in is an important facet of life—and what is more conformist than a school?"^[59]

[edit] Anti-government interpretation

Some political commentators have seen J. K. Rowling's portrayal of the bureaucratized Ministry of Magic and the oppressive measures taken by the Ministry in the later books (like making attendance at Hogwarts School compulsory and the "registration of Mudbloods" with the Ministry) as an allegory criticizing the state.^[60]

The People's Weekly World claims the books draw you "into the politics of the wizarding world—the 'Educational Decrees' from the toad-like Ministry of Magic representative, the high-level connections of 'war criminals' from the last rise of Voldemort, the predjudice against 'mudbloods' and 'half-breeds.'" They suggest connections "to the world we live in, to the similarities and differences between the Fudge administration and the Bush administration."^[61]

Philosopher Jean-Claude Milner claimed "Harry Potter is a war machine against the Thatcherite-Blairist world and the 'American Way of Life" in France's Libération.^[62]

University of Tennessee law professor Benjamin Barton discusses libertarian aspects of Harry Potter in his paper, Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy, published in the Michigan Law Review. Barton says, "Rowling's scathing portrait of government is surprisingly strident and effective. This is partly because her critique works on so many levels: the functions of government, the structure of government, and the bureaucrats who run the show. All three elements work together to depict a Ministry of Magic run by self-interested bureaucrats bent on increasing and protecting their power, often to the detriment of the public at large. In other words, Rowling creates a public-interest scholar's dream—or nightmare—government."^[63]

Rowling describes the beloved wizard Dumbledore as Machiavellian and says "I wanted you to question Dumbledore. It is right to question him, because he was treating people like puppets, and he was asking Harry to do a job that most men twice his age wouldn't have been able to do."^[64]

[edit] Characters compared to George Bush, Tony Blair, and Saddam Hussein

Newsweek magazine asked Alfonso Cuarón, director of the third film based on Rowling's Prisoner of Azkaban if the villainous wizard Voldemort still reminded him of George W. Bush. Cuarón confirmed, "In combination with Saddam. They both have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people. I read books four and five, and Fudge is similar to Tony Blair. He's the ultimate politician. He's in denial about many things. And everything is for the sake of his own persona, his own power. The way the Iraq thing was handled was not unlike the way Fudge handled affairs in book four."^[65]

Slate Magazine also says Rowling takes jabs at the Bush and Blair administrations suggesting the Ministry of Magic's security pamphlet recalls the much-scorned Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System). The author also suggests that Azkaban, the wizard penitentiary, is a stand-in for "Gitmo".^[66]

Rowling has never confirmed these interpretations in Harry Potter; however, when her close friend Gordon Brown once asked her to endorse the Labour Party while Tony Blair was Prime Minister, Rowling refused.^[67] Rowling has attacked the Blair administration's policy on single parent families. She said that Labour could do "a good deal more" and then donated £500,000 to the One Parent Families charity to set an example.^[67] Rowling said that Brown's measures for children 'would have made a real difference to my family's life' when she was poor.^[68] Blair stepped down shortly before the release of Rowling's seventh book, and Brown was appointed Prime Minister.

[edit] Education reform

Teachers have hailed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as a "blistering satire on years of politically motivated interference in the running of schools."^[69]

Rowling describes her character Dolores Umbridge, the Ministry-appointed headmaster of Hogwarts, saying "She has good contacts at the Ministry. She is one of those people, and they do exist in real life, who will always side with the established order. As far as she is concerned authority cannot be wrong so she doesn’t question it, and I would go as far as to say that whatever happened and whoever took over at the Ministry, Umbridge would be there, she likes power. So she is going to side with the people who give her the authority."^[20]

Andrew Slack, founder of the Harry Potter Alliance, says in In These Times, "Lindsay Lohan supersedes news about genocide, men assess their “worth” by their paychecks, women’s bodies are treated as commodities and our educational system preoccupies itself not with stimulating children’s curiosity but rather getting them to efficiently regurgitate information on standardized tests."^[70]

[edit] Anti-terrorism

Capitalism Magazine says that "With a long-term war in progress and threats of further terrorist attacks on American soil," Harry Potter isn't mere escapism and "shows a world in which happiness can be achieved, villains can be defeated, and the means of success can be learned."^[71]

Time magazine says that by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, "Harry is embroiled in a borderless, semi-civil war with a shadowy, hidden leader whose existence the government ignored until disaster forced the issue and who is supported by a secret network of sleeper agents willing to resort to tactics of shocking cruelty. The kids who grew up on Harry Potter—you could call them Generation Hex—are the kids who grew up with the pervasive threat of terrorism, and it's inevitable that on some level they'll make a connection between the two."^[31]

Slate Magazine's Julia Turner compares Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to the current War on Terror against Osama bin Laden saying Voldemort takes up terrorism by destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders. She also notes the parallels in the community's response saying Fred and George Weasley's shop makes a mint selling Shield Cloaks and the new Minister of Magic jails an innocent man, hoping to stave off panic and create the impression that he's taking action.^[66]

Rowling said "I've never thought, "It's time for a post-9/11 Harry Potter book," no. But what Voldemort does, in many senses, is terrorism, and that was quite clear in my mind before 9/11 happened. .... but there are parallels, obviously. I think one of the times I felt the parallels was when I was writing about the arrest of Stan Shunpike, you know? I always planned that these kinds of things would happen, but these have very powerful resonances, given that I believe, and many people believe, that there have been instances of persecution of people who did not deserve to be persecuted, even while we're attempting to find the people who have committed utter atrocities. These things just happen, it's human nature. There were some very startling parallels at the time I was writing it. ^[72]

[edit] Immigration rights

Aviva Chomsky in the Providence Journal suggests that Harry Potter is a parable on immigration rights, noting that US "immigration, citizenship and naturalization laws are based explicitly on discrimination on the basis of national origin. Where you were born, and what passport you carry, determine whether you have the right to come here, to visit, to work, or to live here."^[73]

[edit] Harry Potter used by political activists

[edit] KidSPEAK!

In response to restricted access to the Harry Potter books^[74] children began a letter-writing campaign, forming clubs and organising petitions, which ultimately merged into an internet site called Muggles for Harry Potter. The site evolved into kidSPEAK!, a forum for children to tackle censorship in general, and to fight for Harry Potter specifically.

[edit] HP Alliance

Andrew Slack, an actor/comedian and Harry Potter aficionado, uses his MySpace group Harry Potter Alliance to highlight the crisis in Sudan and social inequities.^[75] In These Times featured Slack in 2007, in an article about Muggle Activists where Slack said, "The Harry Potter parallel to Darfur is simple: With both the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet (the Wizarding World’s mainstream news source) in denial that Voldemort has returned and evil is afoot, Harry and his underground rebel group, 'Dumbledore’s Army,' work with the adult group, 'The Order of the Phoenix,' to awake the world. We in the Alliance seek to be Dumbledore’s Army for the real world, working with anti-genocide organizations, such as 'Fidelity Out of Sudan' and the 'Genocide Intervention Network,' to wake our governments, corporations and media up to the fact that 'never again' means 'never again.'”^[76]

When Time Magazine asked about the Harry Potter Alliance, Rowling said, "It's incredible, it's humbling, and it's uplifting to see people going out there and doing that in the name of your character. What did my books preach against throughout? Bigotry, violence, struggles for power, no matter what. All of these things are happening in Darfur. So they really couldn't have chosen a better cause."^[77] Rowling awarded the Harry Potter Alliance a Fan Site Award in December 2007.

[edit] Wal-Mart Watch

Wal-Mart Watch uses parodies of Harry Potter to compare WalMart to Lord Voldemort and draws analogies between House elves and forced labor.^[78]

[edit] Stop Big Media

Stop Big Media gained support from "Rocking Out Against Voldemedia,” a compilation of ten original songs by ten Harry Potter-themed “Wizard Rock” bands. Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the U.S. to the control of the Ministry of Magic over the Daily Prophet in the Harry Potter books saying "Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the Wizarding World, Dumbledore’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called “Potterwatch. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press."^[79]

[edit] Center for Science in the Public Interest

A worldwide campaign to "save Harry Potter from the clutches of the Coca-Cola Company" was launched by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. The group says that by aggressively marketing sugar- and caffeine-laden drinks to young fans of the Harry Potter series, Coke is helping fuel the childhood obesity epidemic.^[80]

[edit] Campaign for America's Future

In a parody of Harry Potter, Campaign for America's Future cast Seinfeld alumnus, Jason Alexander as "Lord Rovemort," a Karl Rove figure that coordinates Republican "obstruction" in Congress.^[81]

[edit] Politics of JK Rowling

Rowling is a noted philantropist and maintains links on her website promoting Amnesty International, the Multiple sclerosis Society, One Parent Families, and the Children’s High Level Group, which Rowling co-founded to advocate against the use of cage beds for mentally handicapped children. Rowling says her heroine is muckraker Jessica Mitford, whom Rowling describes as a "self-taught socialist".^[82] Rowling acknowledges being left-wing and said "there is a certain amount of political stuff in [Harry Potter]. But I also feel that every reader will bring his own agenda to the book. People who send their children to boarding schools seem to feel that I'm on their side. I'm not. Practicing wiccans think I'm also a witch. I'm not."^[83]

Rowling told a Spanish newspaper in February 2008 that "the international political stance of the United States has been wrong in previous years, for its own and for my country… I want a Democrat in the White House. It’s sad Obama and Clinton are rivals because they are both great.”^[84]

Rowling described her experiences working at Amnesty International to the 2008 graduating class of Harvard and advised, "the great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden."^[85]

[edit] Green values

JK Rowling was recognized with the Order of the Forest for demanding that 16 publishers around the world print her books using "eco-friendly" papers. The last book in the Potter series is considered within the industry to be the most environmentally friendly in publishing history.^[86]

In 2008, J. K. Rowling blocked the Finnish publication of her latest Harry Potter novel on paper from Finland because it lacked the ecologically friendly certification she favors.^[87]

[edit] Eating disorders

Rowling used her celebrity status on her personal website to advocate her views on skinny, celebrity role models. Rowling said these young women's "only function in the world appears to be supporting the trade in overpriced handbags and rat-sized dogs".^[88]

Megan McGill, a well-travelled American fashion model with a degree in neuroscience, defended her trade against the author's scathing criticism saying, "Models do actually read newspapers, and they don't like being called dumb. Maybe most models don't have degrees, but the majority are multi-lingual, and I don't know anyone I would describe as vapid or emaciated."^[89]

Simon Walters, political editor of the Mail on Sunday, complained that Rowling's attack on weight standards was hypocritical because so many "evil" characters in her books, such as Dudley and Vernon Dursley, are fat, while Harry Potter himself is so skinny.^[90]

Rowling responded to her critics by saying that the people in the Harry Potter books who are "on the plumper side" include "several of my most important, admirable and loveable characters." She included a link to a fan website - www.mugglenet.com - that lists seven characters who are "fat and good", three who are "fat and bad" and claims there are none who are "fat and evil".^[91]

[edit] References

Library of Congress: Rowling, J. K. Criticism and interpretation